The Marvel/Sony Superhero Movies Thread

[Dukefrukem]

So I'm the only Hulk hater on MC?

[Dukefrukem]

Also Asa Butterfield is the front runner for Spider-man.

[number8]

So I'm the only Hulk hater on MC?

Time will tell. Maybe someone will chime in to your favor.

Not me, though. I can't hate on a great movie.

[TGM]

I also really quite liked the Hulk movie. My only real gripe with it was always that last battle, though, as it felt to me like the movie suddenly shifted to something out of Final Fantasy, which felt misplaced given the rest of the movie doesn't really fit with that style of finale, IMO. But reading the thoughts on it in this thread makes me wanna perhaps revisit it and see how I feel about it now.

Also Asa Butterfield is the front runner for Spider-man.

I'm not entirely opposed to this. Of the five front-runner actors listed a bit ago, he was my favorite, and he is a good actor. Thing is, though, I've only seen him do serious roles, so I'm not sure how well he'd be able to pull off the comedic aspect of the character.

[Grouchy]

He seems more stoned than serious in that photograph.

[Skitch]

Im cool with Asa.

[Ivan Drago]

Yeah, I'm alright with the second cousin of Augustus Gloop.

[transmogrifier]

If you don't like Butterfield for Spider-Man, just wait two or three years for the next reboot.

And I'm a Hulk meh-er. Some good stuff, some bad stuff.

[Dukefrukem]

Love this

[Dead & Messed Up]

Not a hater or lover of Lee's Hulk. Admired its gumption, even if I felt its reach often exceeded its grasp.

[Sycophant]

I'm sure there are legit reasons for saying Ang Lee's Hulk (my favorite superhero movie) is a bad movie. None of them were in the 2:30 of that ridiculous common sense "Honest Trailers" garbage I watched.

[TGM]

Yeah, that was honestly one of their weaker efforts as of late...

[Irish]

It's a bad movie, and not because of the CGI.

I don't have a problem with brooding but the drama is flat. Part of the problem is that Eric Bana is the star and supposed to be the hero, but as the movie unfolds Nick Nolte's character drives the narrative. It turned out to be Nolte's story and it shouldn't have been (at least not with fan expectation and the way they structured it). The hero needs to drive the narrative, make choices, deal with the consequences. And for a large part of this movie, that wasn't Bana.

There's an interesting dynamic around fathers and sons that could have made a great film, superhero or not. Too few mainstream stories deal with the unique friction of those relationships.

The real shame of it is that Lee tried to do something sophisticated and failed and afterwards we get stuff like Thor & Dark World, which is narrative on the level of a coloring book.

I think they learned the wrong lesson from this movie.

[DavidSeven]

I appreciated the approach and casting of Lee's Hulk. The transitions replicating comic book panels were an inspired touch. The film just falls apart dramatically in the second and third acts. Like Irish says, there's too much emphasis on Nolte's character and the film loses sight of Banner toward the end. The film had a ton of potential; it just couldn't overcome some foundational issues with its storytelling arc.

[Sycophant]

It's been a few years since I watched it, but the last viewing (maybe 2009? 2011?) reminded me how much I love it. I love it for being an Ang Lee film through and through, with all the generational tension and anxiety that brings. As a film that places that conflict in the center, its narrative worked for me.

[Henry Gale]

Banner tried to shoot himself in the head but the Hulk emerged instantaneously and he survived. So he finds out in an absolutely awful way that he's pretty much invincible.

Ah right. The deleted prologue that almost stands as a self-contained little allegory for the character (since it doesn't really connect to the movie that follows) that also would've been a pretty amazing ending, especially considering where it similarly takes place. I wrote about it somewhere here at some point. (I'll edit it in here if I find it.)

As much as I think the 2008 Hulk is thin on story, the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray really show where all of it went. If some of that stuff had been included and the characterizations were generally more fleshed out and deepened, I think the movie would've been genuinely interesting and left something of a legacy beyond being the one MCU movie that doesn't really matter anymore.

[Ezee E]

I forgot both Hulk movies, although I'm pretty sure both throw tanks.

[Dukefrukem]

I forgot both Hulk movies, although I'm pretty sure both throw tanks.

Technically Norton threw a Hummer.

[number8]

[Skitch]

It would be a dream come true if the first third of this flick was the first couple episodes of the animated series in live action.

[Dukefrukem]

2.5 hours to Avengers.

[Irish]

Wtf? People called Joss Whedon a racist, ablist, misogynist and he shut down his twitter account? All this after material in A2?

https://storify.com/Astojap/wehdon-twitter-hate

I feel like I've slipped into yet another parallel universe

[Dukefrukem]

What the hell? What is wrong with those people?

[number8]

I had known that a backlash was brewing but I didn't realize it had reached that far.

A good friend of mine who had never seen Buffy or Dollhouse refused to believe me and my gf when we were talking about their feminist themes a couple of weeks ago over dinner, just because those are shows by Joss Whedon, who she only knows as the giant misogynist.

[Dukefrukem]

How did it become this bad? What was the tipping point?